Center for Asian American Media

Like many young Cambodian Americans who arrived in the U.S. as refugees in the ’80s, Loeun Lun, Many Uch and Kim Ho Ma hoped for the best. Little did they know that their destinies, guided by youthful mistakes and the unforeseeable events of 9/11, would bring them full-circle decades later: from birth in Cambodia to an unwilling return.

After fleeing the Khmer Rouge and settling in Seattle, each was drawn into gang life, and ultimately jail. According to U.S. immigration law they should have been deported, but Cambodia did not accept deportees at the time of their sentences. However, after September 2001, the U.S. pressured Cambodia into changing its policy. As a result, thousands of individuals were separated from their families and returned to a land that many barely knew. Moreover, Loeun, Many, Kim Ho and many others faced the prospect of paying a double penalty: having already served their original prison sentences and moved on with their lives, they now faced deportation.

At the opening of the film, Loeun is married with two young children and has a full-time job. Many seeks redemption for his past by coaching a Little League team in Seattle, while Kim Ho is just days away from being deported. Traveling from the U.S. to Cambodia, directors David Grabias and Nicole Newnham bring to light their heart-breaking stories, and reveal the human cost of an inhumane immigration policy.

“The film treats these immigrant men and their families and children in a deeply humane and artistic way, to show their yearning for a simple, normal, and stable life. It exposes how their basic civil rights and liberties to live fear-free in USA are destroyed by draconian and invasive government policies that de-humanize the poor and powerless. The reality it portrays is strikingly honest, moving, and haunting.”

- Dr. Partha Banerjee, Executive Director, New Jersey Immigration Policy Network

"...SENTENCED HOME is a powerful and deeply disturbing study of a punishment that completely fails to fit the crime."

- Video Librarian

Awards
Audience Award, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
Special Jury Prize, EBS International Documentary Film Festival, Seoul, Korea

Recognition
Barcelona Asian Film Festival, Spain
Reykjavik International Film Festival, Iceland
Tri-Continental Film Festival, Johannesburg, South Africa
Documentary Fortnight, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Seattle International Film Festival
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Missoula
DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, Washington DC
Boulder Asian Film Festival
Kansas International Film Festival
Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival, Massachusetts
Camden International Film Festival, Maine
National PBS Broadcast, Independent Lens, May 2007

Additional Resources
SENTENCED HOME resources and guides »
PBS Independent Lens series »

College/Institution

K-12/Public Library/Community Group